Mary Hohmann

David P. Weikart

Divided into three parts, this book reviews the basic concepts of the High/Scope preschool curriculum and its development, implementation, and effectiveness. The introduction offers a retrospective of the program's history, describes the five basic principles that form the framework of the approach, and discusses some of the reasons for its effectiveness. Part 1 analyzes the core idea in the development of the High/Scope curriculum--active learning. The concept of active learning is discussed in several contexts: as an essential ingredient for learning, as a basis for how adults can create a supportive social climate, and as a foundation for working with the families or working as a team to make the active learning process effective in a particular setting with a particular group of children. Part 2 discusses methods for creating an environment that promotes active learning. It suggests selecting and arranging materials from which children can choose, and manipulating and developing the daily routine so children have many opportunities to initiate, plan, carry out, and discuss their actions and ideas. Part 3 introduces 58 key experiences that can guide adults while they plan activities to support development in creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement, music, classification, seriation, number, space, and time. Each chapter includes a list of references and related readings. (AA)

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